Donald Winnicott

A presentation on a neo-Freudian theorist, by Marjolein.

How did Winnicott perform his research?

• Winnicott was a pediatrician• Because of this, he was able to observe

psychologically disturbed children and their mothers/families

Freud believed that humans functioned on biologically-based drives. Specifically, the life and death drives that immediately needed to be satisfied.

Though Winnicott didn’t make much mention of drives, he mentioned subjective omnipotence. During this stage, a baby considers itself all-powerful and the center of existence because all of it’s needs are instantly gratified.

Influences of motivation…

Freud concerned himself with stages of psychosexual development in children.

Winnicott discussed the child’s need of a holding environment, where the mother would create a protected physical and mental area for the child. The lack of a healthy holding environment could cease a child’s development and cause trauma. The mother played a large role in a child’s personality-development, as a child’s dependency on it’s mother wanes with it’s mothers increasing disability to constantly supply for the child’s needs. This is when the child selects a transitional object, an object of comfort to soothe itself with and hence begin to make the transition to the real world.

Influence of Childhood Experiences…

Freud believed that the human psyche was divided into three parts; the id, the ego, and

the superego.

Structures of Personality…

Winnicott defined the personality in two counterparts: the true self, and the false self. The true entailed the child’s ability to recognize it’s spontaneous and natural needs for self-expression, while the false self was comparable to the superego, because it entailed following social rules and complying to the moral majority.

A summary…• Unconsciously, a child’s development is based

mostly on it’s relationship with it’s mother• The child’s mother is relied upon to create a

holding environment, and to be a “good-enough” mother, where she adjusts herself to her child’s increasing awareness of the world

• The child eventually learns that it is not omnipotent or all-powerful, and soothes itself with a transitional object

• A child’s personality is defined by it’s true self and it’s false self

Limitations…

• Winnicott purely studied children and their relationships with their parents

• Therefore, he solely focused on childhood, and not on adult life

• Living in England and developing most of his theories during World War Two, Winnicott developed mainly Euro-centric theories

• As with most psychological theories, evidence is hard to come upon. Winnicott based his theories on repeating patterns in his patients.

Resources

• Glassman, W. E., & Hadad, M. (2004). Approaches to Psychology.New York: Open University Press.

• Myers, D.G.. (2007). Psychology: Eight Edition. New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

• (2008, October 9). Donald Winnicott. Retrieved November 23, 2008, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Winnicott

• (2008, November 23). Signmund Freud. Retrieved November 23, 2008, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud

• (2008). Donald Winnicott. Retrieved November 23, 2008, from ChangingMinds.Org Web site: http://changingminds.org/disciplines/psychoanalysis/theorists/winnicott.htm